This Week in Milwaukee: May 28-June 3

“Band to watch” is generally a pretty obnoxious term that turns music into a
horse race. Mostly it exists to give critics a reason to pat themselves on the
back for predicting a band’s success. But sometimes the term is justified
nonetheless, conveying genuine excitement for a band that’s on the brink of
being discovered. A staple of this year’s “bands to watch” lists, Nashville’s
Bully are weeks away from releasing their debut album Feels Like, and it’s a doozy of a record, a ripping throwback to
the emotional alterna-punk of the ’90s. Expect it to make a star of band leader
Alicia Bognanno, whose fierce voice, feisty lyrics and sweet way with a melody
have already earned her a folder’s worth of comparisons to Kurt Cobain. This is
one of the year’s most visceral albums.

Alan Parsons Live Project @ The Pabst
Theater, 8 p.m.

Move over T-Pain, Lil Wayne and even
Roger Troutman. Though all of those artists are pioneers in the use of the
voice-manipulating vocoder, Alan Parsons was using the studio device before any
of them, incorporating it into his 1976 Alan Parsons Project song “The Raven.”
Of course, as a dutiful prog-rock band, the Alan Parsons Project used all sorts
of cutting-edge (and sometimes not-so-cutting-edge) studio technology during
the ’70s. These days, Parsons, who earned his first studio credit when he was
just 18 years old (on The Beatles’ Abbey
Road, of all records), continues to tour with an altered version of his
signature band, now called the Alan Parsons Live Project.

Friday, May 29

Black and Brown Comedy Get Down @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 8 p.m.

Along with Steve Harvey and the late Bernie Mac, Cedric “The Entertainer” and
D.L. Hughley were part of a tour captured in a 2000 Spike Lee film called The Original Kings of Comedy that
changed the way comedy was marketed, inspiring countless other joint comedy
tours. Cedric and Hughley are sticking to a similar format for their latest
tour, billed as the “Black and Brown Comedy Get Down,” which will join them
with four other major comedy draws: Mike Epps, Eddie Griffin, George Lopez and
Charlie Murphy.

John Mulaney w/ Max Silvestri @ The
Pabst Theater, 7 and 9:30 p.m.

“Saturday Night Live” writer John
Mulaney quickly established himself as one of the show’s most valuable
behind-the-scenes players, co-creating Bill Hader’s “Weekend Update” nightlife
correspondent Stefon, and in recent years Mulaney has emerged from behind the
writers’ room to claim the spotlight for himself. Unfortunately, his first
major starring vehicle wasn’t especially good. His Fox sitcom “Mulaney,” a
loose “Seinfeld” rip that cast Mulaney as a boring, lightly fictionalized
version of himself, earned almost universally scathing reviews, even from some
of the comedian’s biggest supporters. The show was unceremoniously canceled in
January. Thankfully, that leaves more time for Mulaney to perform on stage,
where he’s much more in his element.

Saturday, May 30

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds @ The Pabst Theater, 8:30 p.m.

After two turbulent decades marked by
in-fighting between co-leaders Liam and Noel Gallagher, Oasis finally split in
2009. Most of the band continued on as Beady Eye, a Beatles- and Stones-minded group
designed to let Liam live out his rock star fantasies. His brother Noel,
meanwhile, founded Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, indulging his
introspective side on the group’s 2011 self-titled record, an often grandiose
pop record in the spirit of Oasis’ most sweeping works. It’s a gorgeous album
from start to finish, though it lacks the big guitars and ripping tempos that drove
Oasis’ most popular albums. The good news? The group’s latest album, Chasing Yesterday, remedies that,
bringing some welcome rock ’n’ roll energy to the mix.

Ministry w/ Hemlock @ The Rave, 8 p.m.

Outside of Nine Inch Nails, perhaps no other act changed the shape of
industrial metal music more than Ministry, one of the genre’s earliest
pioneers. After a nearly 30-year run, however, the band appears to have entered
its final stretch. Guitarist Mike Scaccia died in 2012, suffering a heart attack
on stage while performing with his other band, Rigor Mortis. To honor his
memory, Ministry leader Al Jourgensen has announced that the band’s 2013 effort
From Beer to Eternity, which contains
the last material he recorded with Scaccia, will be the group’s last album,
though the band has continued touring in support of it. Whether Jourgensen will
change his mind about the band’s end remains to be seen (he’d already broken up
the band once in 2008), but Ministry fans would be wise to see this show regardless,
because it could be their last time playing Milwaukee.

Sunday, May 31

Sebadoh w/ Stranger Cat @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.

These days seemingly every ’80s and ’90s indie musician is playing with a
reunited band, but Lou Barlow has the distinction of playing in not one but two
such acts. Since the mid-’00s, Barlow has been recording spectacularly good
albums with Dinosaur Jr., and shortly after that group’s reunion, he also
reformed his other band, Sebadoh, the group he dedicated the ’90s to after his
acrimonious split from Dinosaur Jr. Since reuniting, Sebadoh haven’t been as
prolific in the studio as Dinosaur Jr., but they did release one solid album in
2013, Defend Yourself, which finds
Barlow (and to a lesser extent fellow songwriter Jason Loewenstein) recapturing
the fuzzy, lo-fi spirit of the band’s best albums.

Father John Misty w/ Springtime
Carnivore @ The Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.

In addition to his time drumming for Fleet Foxes, J. Tillman already had seven
albums released under his own name when he decided to reinvent himself as
Father John Misty for his 2012 album for Sub Pop, Fear Fun, which marked
a wild departure from the comparatively traditional folk of his previous
releases. Liberated by his new, joyfully ridiculous shamanic alter ego—and most
likely by all the mushrooms he’d been wolfing down at the time—he recorded his
druggiest, most exploratory album to date, a sprawling, symphonic psych-pop
magnum opus. Turns out that record wasn’t a fluke: His latest sprawling concept
album under his new alias, I Love You, Honeybear, has been greeted by
even stronger reviews.

Hot Chip w/ Slow Magic @ Turner Hall
Ballroom, 8 p.m.

It’s hard to believe that the British dance-pop band Hot Chip have already been
around for 15 years, since each of their albums feels so distinctly fresh. The
group’s latest record, Why Make Sense?,
is a characteristically crisp pop album that draws from electronic styles both
new and old, without ever succumbing to nostalgia. It’s a joyful album, even by
this band’s merry standards.

Tags

SOCIAL UPDATES

Sign up to receive the latest from ShepherdExpress.com and win free tickets to area events!

Email Lists

Cannabis Connection

Ticket Tuesday

News and Views

Week in Review

Dining

Deals and Promotions

Shepherd Events

Email Address

By submitting this form, you are granting: The Shepherd Express, 207 E. Buffalo St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53202, United States, http://shepherdexpress.com permission to email you. You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email. (See our Email Privacy Policy for details.) Emails are serviced by Constant Contact.